


cadence

by niosism



Category: Listeners (Anime)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:48:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25828453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/niosism/pseuds/niosism
Summary: There is a quality to her voice that echoes in his mind and makes him dream a dream so beautiful, he never wants to sleep again.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	cadence

There is a quality to her voice that is unlike anyone else’s.

Sometimes he forgets why he is here, what he is doing and why he is doing it. He wakes up in a cold sweat, his sister’s name fleeing from his lips as his mind wakes, trying to reach for her as she escapes from his ears, until it is quiet again. Echo does not know why he does this at night, he won’t think about it. His sister’s name rings in his ears like an auditory illusion, a faint whisper, trembling inside the edges of his brain, tickling, bothering, and making him infuriated with his illusions of longing and homesickness.

It is as if he is awake in another world, a silent wave of images flashing upon his closed eyelids, except he does not know they are closed, for in his eyes, they are open because they can see what is in front of him. Echo sees what he cannot; an endless sea of joy, a summer sun, his sister, Mu, and Jimi Stonefree.

Who is Jimi, anyway?

Sometimes he hears his name in his sleep too. A natural soporific, the state of dreaming, a land of floating stones and walking dry bones. When he was younger, he used to only wake when he was dreaming, but now it’s different. Now it feels as if he is always awake, with Mu, always within reach of the impossible. He has always lived in this place of giant fighting robots and violent (and sometimes peaceful) Earless ghosts, or whatever in the world they could be, he doesn’t know anything with any certainty.

Mu is… she is an angel from his dreams, and Jimi is her long lost brother they are trying to find. They have adventure after adventure in one big journey to find him for some reason he cannot quite remember. He is dreaming, after all, it is all but a dream. He put himself in this situation, and he was going to push through to the end if it killed him. Wasn’t that all a dream? Even if he died it would be but a fake death, and he would wake up again and find himself in his old bed, surrounded by wooden planks and the dim light bulb hanging from the ceiling, wondering when it would finally snap. Then he would say,

_Turn off the lights, turn off the lights, turn on the show for me tonight_

He’s got his heavy heart to hold him down. Once it falls apart, his head’s in the clouds. It’s always been like that, hasn’t it? He does what he is told. He may be brave, but he doesn’t live for himself. He was born in this world to serve others, and dreaming is all he has left of his life. The Earless will get him one day, he thinks, and the edges of his vision go dark like a vintage portrait from the 50s. He feels a coiling acid snake wrapping up his body, scratching his soft, vulnerable skin all the way up, making scabs bleed, reaching to his neck, ready to bite. _There wasn’t much music then, was there? It must’ve all been so lame._

“Ah!”

Echo’s eyes shoot open. His clothes are drenched in his own sweat and he can’t see a thing. His eyes take a moment to adjust as he slows his breathing and tries to calm himself. That was a nightmare. He doesn’t know what it was about, he can’t remember a thing, but by the state of his body and mind, it definitely was. Why do all his dreams start off rolling in the waves of the higher self, only to plunge down to the pits of darkness and despair? He doesn't know. 

He nearly flinches in fear when he hears soft breathing nearby, and wants to scold himself for being such a wimp. _It’s Mu, of course._ His amazing, and possible only, friend. He is so lucky, he thinks. _So lucky._

For a moment he believed he was in the presence of Jimi, and now that his eyes have adjusted just enough for him to see the glowing white of her hair, his eyes could be playing trick on him. Maybe this is actually Jimi. Maybe Mu is not real, but Jimi is. Could they be the same person? Same mind, different bodies? _God, they look so alike._

He hears her talk in her sleep. There is a cadence to it that echoes in his mind and makes him dream a dream so beautiful, he never wants to sleep again.

**Author's Note:**

> there is a reference in this fic to "turn off the lights" by panic!at the disco. i love how this anime references so many different kinds of music. respect
> 
> if u look hard enough, you'll find my "echo is bi" headcanon in there somewhere ;)


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